{"id":8163,"date":"2025-10-14T03:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T03:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/busta-rhymes-assault-lawsuit-rapper-countersues-ex-assistant\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T03:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T03:25:31","slug":"busta-rhymes-assault-lawsuit-rapper-countersues-ex-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/busta-rhymes-assault-lawsuit-rapper-countersues-ex-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"Busta Rhymes Assault Lawsuit: Rapper Countersues Ex-Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tBusta Rhymes has launched defamation counterclaims against a former assistant who accused the veteran rapper of punching him in the face for using his phone on the job.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhymes (Trevor Smith Jr.) was hit with a lawsuit this summer from Dashiel Gables, who worked as the rapper\u2019s personal assistant for roughly six months starting in July 2024. Gables alleges Rhymes routinely abused employees and that the rapper physically assaulted him in the lobby of a Brooklyn luxury high-rise last January.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAt the time the lawsuit was filed, Rhymes called it \u201can attempted shakedown by a disgruntled former assistant\u201d and vowed to countersue. He has now followed through with a defamation counterclaim docketed on Monday (Oct. 13) in federal court.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSmith did not assault or batter Gables,\u201d writes Rhymes\u2019 attorney Patrick Butler<\/strong>. \u201cGables knew the statements were false, or acted with reckless disregard for the truth, including by fabricating allegations of criminal conduct and violence, omitting exculpatory facts and deliberately ignoring contrary evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe countersuit alleges that Gables\u2019 very public lawsuit has damaged Rhymes\u2019 reputation and caused him humiliation and embarrassment. The rapper also says he lost two advertising campaigns as a result of Gables\u2019 defamatory claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tGenerally speaking, statements made in court are shielded from any liability for defamation under a principle known as the litigation privilege. Rhymes\u2019 countersuit attempts to get around this limitation by alleging that Gables shared his lawsuit with the press and encouraged media reports about it.<\/p>\n

\n\tGables\u2019 lawyers did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit, filed in August, claimed that Rhymes \u201croutinely degraded\u201d Gables and other employees by screaming, threatening, smacking and spitting at them. The rapper demanded that Gables work more than 15 hours a day but refused to pay him overtime, according to the former assistant.<\/p>\n

\n\tGables said this poor treatment escalated in the early hours of Jan. 10, when he was unloading Rhymes\u2019 luggage in the lobby of the rapper\u2019s Brooklyn apartment building. Gables allegedly received a call from his daughter and tried to respond via text, sending Rhymes \u201cinto a rage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe screamed \u2018Stay the f\u2013k off your phone,\u201d wrote Gables\u2019 lawyers in the complaint. \u201cWhen plaintiff explained it was his daughter, Busta Rhymes responded, \u2018Don\u2019t tell me about your f\u2013king kid, what the f\u2013k that gotta do with me? When Plaintiff responded that it could have been an emergency, Busta Rhymes asked \u2018are you talking while I\u2019m talking?\u2019 and then, with a closed fist, punched plaintiff in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former assistant alleged he had to go to the hospital to get treatment for his injuries, and that he was later \u201cblacklisted\u201d from the hip-hop industry. Gables also filed a police report against Rhymes, but no charges were ever brought.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhymes denies all of Gables\u2019 allegations in his Monday answer and counterclaim. He also asserts a slew of defenses to the lawsuit, including that \u201cany conduct to which plaintiff was allegedly subjected constituted no more than petty slights and trivial inconveniences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Busta Rhymes has launched defamation counterclaims against a former assistant who accused the veteran rapper of punching him in the face for using his phone on the job. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[302,6885,3202,6044,303,2278,6886],"class_list":["post-8163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-assault","tag-busta","tag-countersues","tag-exassistant","tag-lawsuit","tag-rapper","tag-rhymes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}